In today’s economy you have to be careful and even more important not as “giving” when you make a major purchase. About 2 weeks ago I bought a gift for the wife, something she’s wanted for a long time, a new dinning room table set. After the rounds of chemo, surgery and radiation I wanted her to have something she could enjoy with her friends now that she’s getting well.

So let the adventure begin.

After purchasing the table and six chairs we were told that the delivery could be in a few days, a Saturday at that. Great. So come Saturday we cleaned out the dining room to get ready. When the dining room set arrived it was damaged in areas too many to count. There were cracks on the pedestal, cracks in the chairs. I remarked, “What did you guys put this together with, a sledge hammer?”

“No, our furniture is made in America in Ohio” said the delivery guy.

“Really” I responded, “Then explain the ‘Made in China’” tags? He couldn’t.

So I told him that I couldn’t accept delivery with these cracks. The delivery man told me that they would repair any damage and while I should have told him to pack it up I decided to call back to the store and talk with my sales lady. She assured me that everything would be addressed and would set up a day for repair, which would be out in a few days with new chairs and a new pedestal to replace the cracked one.

Five days later the delivery/repair guys come again. However while replacing the three cracked chairs they found that one of the new ones fresh from the factory had a crack in the same place.

“This is a manufacturing defect” the repairman said.

Anyway, I got the two new chairs and a promise to return with the third “some time next week”. Then just as they left my wife noticed that they hadn’t fixed the pedestal, they had simply replaced only one of the four cracked supports. So another call to their service department to have the truck turnaround and come back and fix the rest of them. Note that per their management on the previous Sunday the entire pedastal would be replaced. Seems to American Signture, “Replaced” means “cannibalize existing inventory”.

So today is Saturday, one week from receiving a $1300 Dining Room Set from American Signature Furniture and low and behold my wife sat on one of the chairs and – you guessed it – “crack”.

At this point I’ll be returning the entire set back to them.

American Signature Furniture receives and “avoid” rating based on 1). Substandard design and manufacturing. Getting one chair cracked is understandable. Getting four is negligent design. Luckily I didn’t entertain and have a guest collapse on the floor from the substandard construction.

2) American Signature Furniture bills itself as an American Company who owns all the process of the furniture sale, from factory to customer. However what they don’t tell you is that they have their manufacturing outsourced to China, no doubt for the cheap labor. A visit to one of their stores (pictures coming) show shoddy work on many of their products from beds to tables to chairs. They have a problem here with quality assurance.

3) Their response to customer complaints are fast, but getting a resolution takes much too long. Again you don’t spend $1300 to have to wait 2 weeks to get to use the product you bought. That’s simply unacceptable and in today’s economy unnecessary.

One good point is that they do have a “limited” lifetime guarantee and if you have the furniture delivered, a one year at home service. Due to this experience I would say it’s needed, you’re likely to use it.